Kenneth Arthur "Ken" Dodd, OBE (born 8 November 1927) is an English comedian, singer-songwriter and actor, identified by his trademark unruly hair and protruding teeth, his red, white and blue "tickling stick" and his famous, upbeat greeting of "How tickled I am!". He also created the world and characters of the Diddy Men, with 'diddy' being Liverpudlian slang for small.

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Dodd was born on 8 November 1927 in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, Lancashire, the son of a coal merchant, Arthur Dodd and wife Sarah (née Gray). He had an older brother, William (1925–2011). He went to the Knotty Ash School, and sang in the local church choir of St John's Church, Knotty Ash. At the age of seven, he was dared by his school friends to ride his bike with his eyes shut. He accepted the dare, crashed, and received facial injuries which resulted in his distinctive buck teeth.[citation needed]

He then attended Holt High School, a grammar school in Childwall, but left at age fourteen to work for his father.[3] Around this time he became interested in showbusiness after seeing an advert in a comic: "Fool your teachers, amaze your friends—send 6d in stamps and become a ventriloquist!" and sending off for the book. Not long after, his father bought him a ventriloquist's dummy and Ken called it Charlie Brown. He started entertaining at the local orphanage, then at various other local community functions.

He got his big break at age twenty-six when, in September 1954, he made his professional show-business debut at the now-demolished Nottingham Empire.[4] A nervous young man, he sat in a local milk bar for most of the afternoon, going over and over his lines before going to the theatre. He later said, "Well at least they didn't boo me off". He continued to perform, in 1955 he appeared at Blackpool, where, in the following year, he had a part in "Let's Have Fun". His performance at the Central Pier was part of a comedy revue with Jimmy James and Company. Also on the same bill was Jimmy Clitheroe and Roy Castle.[5] Eventually, Ken Dodd gained top billing at Blackpool in 1958.

Dodd has had many recording hits, charting on nineteen occasions in the UK Top 40, including his first single "Love Is Like a Violin" (1960), produced on Decca Records by Alex Wharton, which charted at number 8 (UK), and his song "Tears" (Columbia), which topped the UK charts for five weeks in 1965, selling over a million copies. At the time it was the UK's biggest selling single by a solo artist,[7] and remains one of the UK's biggest selling singles of all time. Dodd was selected to perform the song on A Jubilee Of Music on BBC One on 31 December 1976, a celebration of the key pop successes of Queen Elizabeth II's first twenty-five years as Britain's monarch.

Dodd is renowned for the length of his performances, and during the 1960s he earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's longest ever joke-telling session: 1,500 jokes in three and a half hours (7.14 jokes per minute), undertaken at a Liverpool theatre, where audiences were observed to enter the show in shifts. In 2006, Ken Dodd appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in front of Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, where he reprised some of his famous jokes, including those about tax accountants as well as singing his famous song "Happiness".

He continues to tour and, despite his age, his shows still frequently do not finish until after midnight. In 2012 at the age of 84, he played the Princes Theatre in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex on 7 July. Starting at 7.15pm he continued until just before 9.00pm when Sybie Jones took to the stage. Returning at 9.30pm he continued until 10.00pm. The second support act performed until Dodd's return just before 11.00pm when he continued until 00.25am. The tour, already on performance 15 of the year, had a further 38 dates scheduled before the end of 2012.[8]

Became one of the rare entertainers to given a second show of An Audience with... which he did in 'Another audience with Ken Dodd' in 2002.

In December 2004, Dodd was in Nottingham to be presented with a framed playbill after a sell out performance at the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham to celebrate his fifty years in show business. Dodd's first professional performance was on stage at the Empire Theatre, Nottingham in 1954.

In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders to find the 'Comedians' Comedian', Dodd was voted amongst the 'Top 50 Comedy Acts Ever', ranked as number 36. He was made an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University in 1997. A statue depicting Dodd with his feather duster was unveiled in Lime Street Station, Liverpool on 11 June 2009.

Dodd has had two long-term fiancées, but has never married. A stalker, Ruth Tagg, who harassed Dodd and his girlfriend Anne Jones (who is also a current support act, named 'Sybie' Jones), sending threatening letters and a dead rat, attempted to burn down his house by pushing burning rags through the letterbox in October 2001. Tagg pleaded guilty to harassment and arson at Preston Crown Court.[9]

He underwent a hernia operation in late 2007, forcing him to cancel a performance, of which he has only ever cancelled 2 shows due to bereavement, but he was back on stage within a month. Dodd presented the History of Liverpool Comedians at St George's Hall on 1 and 2 April 2008.

Ken Dodd: The Biography by Stephen Griffin was published on 15 September 2005 (ISBN 1-84317-123-6). His own book, Look At It My Way, was published in November 2009. In July 2010, the regional UK airline, Eastern Airways, named one of their Jetstream 41 aircraft after Dodd, in celebration of one year of scheduled services to Liverpool, and the support that Dodd shows for the region and in particular the airport.

In 1989 Dodd was charged with tax evasion. The subsequent trial, with the prosecution case led by Brian Leveson QC, produced several revelations. The Diddy Men, who had appeared in his stage act, were often played by local children from stage schools, and were revealed never to have been paid. Dodd was also revealed to have very little money in his bank account, having £336,000 in cash stashed in suitcases in his attic. When asked by the judge, "What does a hundred thousand pounds in a suitcase feel like?", Dodd made his now famous reply, "The notes are very light, M'Lord."[11]

Dodd was represented by George Carman, who in court famously quipped, "Some accountants are comedians, but comedians are never accountants".[12] The trial lasted three weeks: Dodd was acquitted.[12]

Despite the strain of the trial, Dodd immediately capitalised on his new-found notoriety with a successful season running from Easter to Christmas 1990 at the London Palladium. It was there he had previously broken the house record for the longest comedy season at the theatre, in 1965, with a residency lasting forty-two weeks. Some of his current material mocks the trial and tax in general. For a while he introduced his act with the words, "Good evening, my name is Kenneth Arthur Dodd; singer, photographic playboy and failed accountant!"[13]